On Wednesday, Steve (rootbeer1) and I met up with Ray (profkampf) and Jim (poohbearjim) to celebrate Ray's birthday at the sushi boat place on Church (Warakubune). We all love sushi, and especially when it's self-serve off little boats floating past you at the counter. After dinner, Steve and I headed up to Davies Hall to hear the symphony and chorus perform the Verdi Requiem. It was a great performance, and we spotted Tom (notdefined) in the tenor section. The male soloists were so-so, but the women were wonderful, albeit rather operatic. Well, it is Verdi. The two ladies were quite zaftig, only lacking horned helmets. The mezzo's chartruese and orange chiffon dress was a bit jarring, given that everybody else, including the soprano, were in black and white.

Last night, we went over to Chuck (chukspace) and Dave's place in Noe Valley for dinner (homemade pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, Greek salad and watermelon/mint sorbet that Chuck also made) and canasta. We were beaten, but made an astounding comeback in the third hand and almost put us in the lead.

Steve and I both contributed to Ray's Deck of Cards project. Steve was assigned the King of Spades, and I the Jack of Diamonds:

Egotistical, perhaps, but my name is Jack, after all.

Steve's gone off to get pizza makin's--we're going to watch Walk the Line tonight.

We're going to park the cars up there tomorrow morning (Saturday). Don't feel like you have to wait around for us - if you aren't there, I'll leave the keys with Ed to give to Steve on Monday. Thank you again!

We go there and Isobune in Japantown, which is a bit more expensive. But there in the mall you can get those little fish-shaped pancake-thingies filled with bean paste for dessert, and go to the bookstore and stationary shop.

It was lots of fun. And you probably would have beat us if we played that final hand, but it was getting late.

In August, I am visiting some canasta playing friends in Minneapolis. We used to play the 2 deck version every Sunday night, so I can't wait to introduce them to this version.

I also like Warakubune a lot but now that I work on the peninsula, I don't go there as often as I used to. I've been to Isobune too, but with the crowds and the slightly higher prices, I would rather go to Warakubune.

The fish-shaped pancake-thingies filled with bean paste are called Taiyaki. Tai is the name of the fish they resemble, which in English is sea bream. Yaki means burnt, or baked, or cooked, or fried. You get the picture.